今天Larry到Li Hua的宿舍去串門，Li Hua會學到兩個常用語：hang in there和to be stressed out.

    Larry： Li Hua， you look exhausted. Is everything OK？

    Li Hua： 哎喲， Larry， 我得在星期五以前趕出兩篇論文，星期五還有一門課要大考，你說我能不累嗎？I AM exhausted！

    Larry： Hang in there， Li Hua！ After Friday it will be all over， and then you can relax. Li Hua： Hang in there？ 那是什么意思呀？

    Larry： Hang in there. Hang in there just means "to keep enduring" or "to persist through a difficult situation." Li Hua： 噢，hang in there的意思就是，在困難的情況下再忍一忍，或者堅持下去。Hang in there - Hmm……這個說法很有意思。不過hang這個詞本意不是“懸掛”嗎？

    Larry： That's right， but "hang in there" can also mean "to stay the same" or "to not give up". Li Hua： 噢，我明白了，hang in there就是要“堅持下去，不要放棄”的意思。

    Larry： Exactly！ Remember last semester when you had two tests and a term paper due the same week， you hung in there and even managed to get good grades. When things get tough， you just have to hang in there. Li Hua： 我當然記得上學期的那個禮拜。一個星期里，我有兩門課要考試，還要交一篇學期論文。我當時咬緊牙關堅持學習，結果還得了好分數。所以你說，這就是hang in there的意思吧？

    Larry： You're right！ Let me give you another example. If someone is having an emergency and calls the 9-1-1 emergency hotline， the operator might say， "Hang in there， an ambulance will be there in a few minutes". Li Hua： 噢，你說要是遇到緊急情況打911電話，接線員可能會說，Hang in there！ 也就是說：“別著急，堅持一下，救護車馬上就到”的意思。

    Larry： So， just hang in there， Li Hua. You'll finish the papers before Friday and get good grades for the test too！

    Li Hua： 嗨，Larry， 我剛考試考完。現在好了， 我可以輕松一下了。

    Larry： Well， I'm glad to see you so happy now that your test is over and those papers are done. You were really stressed out last week！

    Li Hua： 就是啊，我現在好高興。可是，你說我上星期怎么了？Stressed out？

    Larry： I said you were "stressed out". Stressed out means that you were under so much stress and pressure that you barely made it.

    Li Hua： 噢，stressed out意思就是“壓力太大，幾乎承受不了”。Hmm， 這話一點沒錯，我上個星期還真是有點頂不住了。Larry， 你倒是好像不太容易stressed out. Larry： That's because I know that to be stressed out usually makes things worse. I find that I do better on a test when I'm not stressed out about it.

    Li Hua： Hmm， 我也有這種感覺，你越是感到壓力大，越會壞事。在這種情況下，考試都是考不好的。

    Larry： Last week， you appeared a little bit impatient， but I understand it's because you were really stressed out about your papers. So I encouraged you to HANG IN THERE.

    Li Hua： 我上星期顯得很煩躁呀！喲，我自己還沒有察覺呢。Larry， 我要是對你顯得不耐煩， 對不起喲！下次再遇到壓力很大的情況，也就是我stressed out的時候，我一定會記住，要堅持下去，要hang in there. Larry： Oh， don't worry about it. The last thing I want is for you to stress out about making me upset. By the way， did you call Michael last night？

    Li Hua： 對，我打了。他說他還不太習慣那兒的生活，我讓他hang in there！ Try not to be stressed out. 他還讓我向你問好呢！

    Larry： That's nice！

    今天李華學到了兩個常用語。一個是hang in there， 表示“堅持下去，不放棄”。另一個是to be stressed out， 意思是“壓力太大”。